On numerous occasions I have revealed that out of every 100 shots that I take with my cameras, my average rate of what I judge to be "keepers" is 2 (2% of total shots), and my average rate of what I judge to be "gems" is 1 (1% of total shots). Independent of camera used, and experience.

Well, you're twice as good, and then some, than I am.

Will you join me in the spirit of full disclosure and reveal your own true photographic success-rate ?

Less than 1%.

Bear in mind this sobering clue surrounding how people judge their own "IQ":

One of the main effects of illusory superiority in IQ is the Downing effect. This describes the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ .

Also bear in mind this sobering clue surrounding how people judgeotherpeople's "IQ":

His studies also evidenced that the ability to accurately estimate others' IQ was proportional to one's own IQ. This means that the lower the IQ of an individual, the less capable they are of appreciating and accurately appraising others' IQ. Therefore individuals with a lower IQ are more likely to rate themselves as having a higher IQ than those around them. Conversely, people with a higher IQ, while better at appraising others' IQ overall, are still likely to rate people of similar IQ as themselves as having higher IQs .

Thus, it appears that thelowerthat you report your own-success rate to be, thebettera photographer you are ! So, let's see who dares to claim the lowest success-rate! ...

It depends on how you define "success rate", of course. The way I used it above is what percent of the photos I take make it to my online galleries. And only 1% of that 1% gets printed. And only 1% of that gets framed and hung. Hmm -- why did I spend so much on a camera and lenses?

Of course, that doesn't mean that only 1% of my photos turn out, or that I do photography via "spray and pray", it's just that only 1% are "interesting" enough, and different enough from other photos I've taken, to bother processing.

Then again, when I count photos such as these among my favorites:

one could be excused for questioning my artistic sensibility and/or IQ.